Thoughts from Dave Mead and discussion about issues and concerns for Small and Mid-size Businesses. Some discussion topics will include strategic planning and execution, improving profitability and cash flow, maximizing value for exit.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Colorado success stories: Source Office Products

Editors Note: Source Office Products was recognized as a 2010 Colorado Company to Watch.

Faced with a difficult economy in 2008 with existing customers forecasting 15-20 percent reductions in volume, the leadership at Source Office Products had to make a decision. Most organizations were cutting staff to reduce expenses. However, as Chairman and Founder, John Givens recently told me, "We felt we were already operating efficiently and would be cutting muscle. So we decided to hire and grow. We began to sell more lines of business to those customers who already liked doing business with us."

While it might seem counterintuitive to some, for Source Office Products, the strategy worked well. Source, founded in 1990, grew revenues 40% between 2007 and 2010 and is enjoying an anticipated growth rate of 18% in 2011.Source Office Products is a regional single source provider of business to business office products and services including office supplies, multifunction printers and copiers, managed print services (document management), web-managed commercial printing (business printing & marketing collateral), office furniture, and coffee services.

How is Source Office Products different?

Source Office Products seeks to tailor a solution for each client. We combine a strong commitment to superior IT systems and business processes with a commitment to serve each client as they want to be served. Each client has different priorities and pain points. Our account managers meet with each client 2-4 times a year to assess their needs.

Then we develop customer-specific programs and solutions. One client may be growing rapidly and office products are a relatively small percentage of the total expenses. That client may be looking to make things easy, simple, and convenient. Another client that is a more competitive environment may need us to provide the lowest cost solution. With automation and IT, we can provide 'mass produced customization'. Process and work flow is very important since minimizing the number of times people touch the order leads to higher quality, speed, and efficiency. We stress automation with both customers and our suppliers - greater than 94 percent of our business is conducted online in real time by customers.

This carries through to your culture which is very customer-centric.

Ultimately our biggest difference is that we hire the most experienced and talented account managers and provide them a lot of autonomy and the freedom to serve the customer. We let them act as entrepreneurs and we manage to results through reporting and automation. We have a very egalitarian culture. We work hard to make certain that every team member knows how important and valued they are. Management's role is to remove obstacles for team members so they can do their jobs better. We stress what I call "cross-lateral pollination" which means people from all areas are involved in team selling and team implementation.

Founders sometimes have difficulty giving up control. You brought in management with significant growth experience.

In the growth of every organization the best leaders must learn to follow. They must be willing to follow the advice of people they disagree with when the consensus of those they trust goes contrary to their opinion. They must serve the team by continuing to remove obstacles and hurdles that impede success. They must be acutely aware of their limitations and highly alert to the extraordinary qualities of those that make up their team.

Given our growth, it was obvious that we need a seasoned leader to help us assemble the team and integrate corporate resources necessary to provide effective support for our internal and external customers. Ken Larson, our president, has already taken the journey of growth in his career and has very strong opinions about what needs to be done and why. His core ideology and deep genuine passion aligns incredibly well with our high performance culture and guiding principles. Peter Burch, our CEO, puts the team and the organizations success ahead of all else. His knowledge, skills and ability to integrate various departments and team members are beyond impressive. He allows leaders to lead. Peter has high expectations and is constantly working to improve. He is all about taking responsibility and owning your work.

What are the keys to continued growth over the next 5-10 years?

We have to execute well and manage successfully what we've undertaken in the last 2 years. We've added Managed Print Services (document management), iPrint (commercial printing), and the Coffee division. Mergers are also important. To date, we have done three mergers, including Wyoming Office Solutions and a recent merger with Valley Office Supplies in Grand Junction. We need to integrate these well and to identify other possible mergers that have good cultural fit and strong entrepreneur-owners who want to grow with us, and can support our objectives as a regional SINGLE SOURCE B2B provider.

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Since 1991, we have been publishing a periodic eLetter "Issues for Growth" that contains articles or thoughts of interest to business owners looking to grow and improve their businesses. We invite your comments and discussion.

About Me

We have been consulting with small and mid-size businesses for over 30 years, helping companies move to the "next level of success" by focusing on strategies that the company can execute well and aligning all activities within the company to those key strategies.
I have started and run 7 companies - a couple of great successes, a few moderate successes, a couple of screaming failures.